Homebush Bay, Parramatta River, Newington Nature Reserve & Sydney Olympic Park

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Route: Powells Creek, Liberty Grove, Lewis Berger Park, Homebush Bay Corso, Rhodes Foreshore Park, Bennelong Bridge, Mill Park, Blaxland Road, John Whitton Railway Bridge, Charity Point, Memorial Park, Parramatta Valley Cycleway, Lancaster Avenue, Ermington, Silverwater Road, Parramatta River South Path, Blaxland Riverside Park, Newington Nature Reserve, Silverwater Marker, Woo-la-ra, Hill Road, Mariners Cove, Shipwreck Lookout, Powells Creek Path, Badu Mangroves

Date: 09/07/2022

From: Sydney Olympic Park

Parking: Badu Mangroves Car Park

Start Point: Badu Mangroves

Finish Point: Badu Mangroves

Region: Sydney

Route length: 16.5km

Average speed: 5.1km/h

Ascent: 139m
Descent: 142m

Points of Interest: Homebush Bay, Newington Nature Reserve, Badu Mangroves

The subject of this hike would be the Parramatta River and Sydney Olympic Park, built and made famous by the Olympic Games in 2000. Up until the Olympic Games, the Olympic Park site was made up of a combination of state abattoir and brickworks before these were closed and the Millennium Parklands were created. Significant development has created several urban parks while maintaining and protecting a large area of mangrove swamp and unspoiled aboriginal forest. Several paths and bike tracks crisscross the area and I was out to explore it on a fine, sunny winter day.

The Olympic Park is the obvious starting point thanks to the multitude of car parks dotted around, however, these do get busy during the middle of the day. I used the car park at the southern end of the Badu Mangroves swamp surrounding Powells Creek. I would be saving the mangroves for later in the day.

I headed east from the car park along the shared path that runs straight to Homebush Bay Drive, where another way follows the road north, skirting the edge of the mangroves until it reaches Homebush Bay. The large bay is primarily artificial and was home to heavy industry, including the manufacture of the infamous Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the US military during the Vietnam War. A drive to regenerate the bay began in the 1980s and continued as part of the Sydney Olympic Park, however, much of the bay is still polluted.

Powells Creek

There are several low observation towers throughout the Olympic Parklands

The path makes its way through a small park and then over to the shoreline of the bay where there is a small statue of a little girl (there are a series of statues along the 2km shoreline that show the girl doing a cartwheel). The path continues through the Rhodes Foreshore Park and beneath Bennelong Bridge. 

Shipwrecks in Homebush Bay

The bayside statue of the cartwheeling girl

Homebush Bay

Bennelong Bridge

At Rhodes Point, at the north end of Homebush Bay, is the Parramatta River. You can get across via a cycleway on an old railway bridge. On the north side of the river is the Parramatta Valley Cycleway, a route that would take me along the river to Silverwater Bridge.

The old rail bridge over Parramatta River

Wentworth Point

Parramatta River

Parramatta Valley cycleway

Parramatta Valley cycleway

Parramatta River

Parramatta River from Silverwater Bridge

Silverwater Bridge crosses back to the south side of the river where there is another path and a few small parks. The real highlight of this area, however, is Newington Nature Reserve.

Parramatta River and the high rises of Wentworth Point

Blaxland Riverside Park

The reserve was created in 2000 as part of the Olympic Park development. The urban oasis protects rare remnant forest and wetland habitats that collectively support over 240 native plant species and over 200 native bird and animal species. The Reserve also preserves a rare example of a complete estuarine zonal succession – a gradation of mudflats, mangrove forest, saltmarsh meadows, Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest and Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest are revealed as the land slopes upwards from the Parramatta River.

The armoury wharf

The old entrance to Newington Armoury

Newington Nature Reserve

What's remarkable is that Newington was a former armoury, built in the late 1890s by the Royal Australian Navy. The depot closed in 1994 to allow for the Olympics to take place in 2000. Remediation and redevelopment of the southern two-thirds of the depot led to the restoration of tidal flushing to the wetland in 1997, as the wetland had become effectively landlocked as a result of the construction of the Parramatta River seawall in the 1890s and the reclamation of Wentworth (Homebush) Bay in the 1950s.

You can find some excellent views over the nature reserve from the grass mound at Woo-la-ra (meaning 'lookout place'). The mounds here were the only way that the contaminated soils could be safely managed while the area was rehabilitated - essentially putting them in a big pile and then covering them in clay. 

Parramatta River and the City of Parramatta

Views from Woo-la-ra / Silverwater Marker

Woo-la-ra

Only a short distance away, through the streets of Wentworth Point, is Homebush Bay once again. It is here that you will find some shipwrecks lining the shore, being slowly reclaimed by nature. There are five wrecks in total, stranded after the shipwrecking yard closed in the 1970s. The wrecks are now slowly turning into floating forests.

SS Mortlake Bank

Bow of the SS Mortlake Bank

The remains of the SS Ayrfield

There are a few minor diversions to view the wrecks up close before the walking track continues past the Waterbird Refuge, a 10-hectare wetland that has become home to many rare and endangered migratory birds.

Waterbird Refuge

Black-winged Stilts in the refuge

The Waterbird Refuge backs onto the Badu Mangroves, which are accessible via a boardwalk that weaves through the mangrove forest. The Badu Mangroves form the largest remaining intertidal wetland on the Parramatta River. They are a fascinating way to finish off this surprisingly interesting hike.

The Badu Mangroves

Badu Mangroves boardwalk